Yale – Page 14 – Yale Podcast Network

Terence Winter Redux! – The Sopranos 20th anniversary

By yalepodcasts | April 4, 2019

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In honor of the 20th anniversary of one of the greatest TV shows ever made, we’re replaying our very first episode of the podcast with a new introduction.

Terry Winter worked his way up The Sopranos writing staff to become one of the three key contributors to the series. Terry went on to a 20 year career at HBO, creating and showrunning two additional series after the end of The Sopranos. He was also nominated for an Oscar for writing The Wolf of Wall Street.

For more show news, follow Aaron on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/aarondtracy

Ep. 13 – Nicholas Christakis on the animal origins of goodness

By yalepodcasts | April 1, 2019

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For decades, researchers have debated whether or not animals make friends. “Friends” — the taboo “f word” — was generally put in quotes if it was used at all. But if you study the social networks of elephants, whales and other animals, it is clear that they have friends just like we do, according to Dr. Nicholas Christakis. Friendship, like other societal characteristics, evolved independently and convergently across species.

Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science, Dr. Christakis is a leading Yale sociologist and physician known for his research on human social networks and biosocial science. In this episode, he speaks with us about the ancient origins and modern implications of our common animality and his new book, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.

Ep. 12 – Novelist Lindsay Stern on “The Study of Animal Languages”

By yalepodcasts | March 18, 2019

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In March of 2016, a group of scientists reported a startling discovery from the forests of central Japan: syntax, the property of speech that enables it to express limitless meanings, was not unique to human languages. It had been observed in the vocal system of a bird. In her acclaimed new novel The Study of Animal Languages, published last month by Viking-Penguin and written by When We Talk About Animals co-host Lindsay Stern, a biologist named Prue conducts a similar experiment in her laboratory at a New England liberal arts college. Like the actual study, hers is touted as evidence that animals have yet another capacity we assumed made us unique. But in a speech at the heart of the book, where Prue announces her findings, she suggests that the study teaches us more about ourselves than it does about the animal in question. We speak with Lindsay about the limitations of conscience, the spiritual costs of the Anthropocene, and fiction’s capacity to explore the motives behind our search for animal minds.

Dale Launer – Screenwriter (My Cousin Vinny, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ruthless People)

By yalepodcasts | March 14, 2019

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Dale has written some of the most memorable and enjoyable comedies of the last few decades, including two of the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays Of All Time. From My Cousin Vinny to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to Ruthless People, Dale’s scripts poke fun at the class system, and champion the underdog against whatever ruling system is in place. These are laugh out loud comedies that aren’t afraid to be smart. Join Aaron and Dale for a wide ranging conversation about Dale’s process and career.

Ep. 11 – Diana Reiss on recognizing the dolphins in the mirror

By yalepodcasts | March 11, 2019

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In mountainous regions of the world, there are human societies that use whistled languages to transmit and understand a potentially unlimited number of meanings over great distances. While in graduate school, Dr. Diana Reiss began to wonder: If humans can encode great amounts of information in whistles, perhaps much more is going on with the whistles of dolphins than we once thought. Reiss
is an internationally renowned expert on dolphin intelligence and a Professor of Psychology at Hunter College in New York City. With colleagues, she was the first to demonstrate
that dolphins can recognize themselves in mirrors, a capability once thought to be unique to humans, and has taught dolphins to communicate with underwater interactive keyboards. In this episode, she describes how she got early support for her work from SETI
researchers, John Lilly’s complex role in shaping scientific and public interest in dolphins, the parallels between dolphin and human whistle languages, the importance of anecdotal experiences in science, and her advocacy work to end dolphins hunts in Japan.

Michael Rauch is back! – TV Creator, Showrunner

By yalepodcasts | February 28, 2019

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To Live & Dialogue’s first-ever returning guest! Join Aaron and Michael in front of a packed crowd in New Haven to discuss Michael’s prolific career. A successful TV Creator and Showrunner, Michael’s current series is the CBS drama “Instinct,” starring Alan Cumming, which returns for its second season next month. Michael speaks about the nuts and bolts of running a network show, his thoughts on directing, casting, and much much more.

Emily Nussbaum – Pulitzer Prize Winning TV Critic at The New Yorker

By yalepodcasts | February 14, 2019

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Emily is one of the sharpest, most innovative, most influential TV critics working today. She’s the TV critic at The New Yorker, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism.

Emily was kind enough to shlep up to New Haven where she spoke to Aaron’s class, then did a larger Q&A on stage, answering questions about her career, her process, her run-ins with the TV creators she’s reviewed, and her thoughts on the current state of TV writing.

Ep. 9 – Being Charles Foster being a beast

By yalepodcasts | February 11, 2019

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What is it like to be another creature? What is it like to see, smell, hear, taste and feel the world as a different animal? Our guest today, the spectacularly imaginative writer and explorer Dr. Charles Foster wanted to find out. So, he got down on all fours and tried his best to do just that, living for weeks at a time as a badger, an otter, an urban fox, a deer and a swift. In this episode, Dr. Foster speaks about his adventures in non-humanness, how inhabiting the sensory world of other animals expanded his empathy, the shamanic quality of good nature writing, and his ambition to use language to subvert language itself. His explorations of mind and body are chronicled in his daring, hilarious and award-winning book, “Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide.”

Ep. 8 – Charles Siebert on translating nature’s symphony

By yalepodcasts | January 28, 2019

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During his travels in South America at the close of the 18th century, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt came upon a parrot speaking the words of a lost Indian tribe. The encounter inspired our guest, acclaimed author and New York Times Magazine writer Charles Siebert, to imagine the echoes of human language that might persist, in nonhuman voices, once we are gone. We speak with Siebert about his reporting on humans’ wonder for and wounding of animals, the reach of metaphor, and what he discovered in the gaze of a chimpanzee named Roger.

Cinco Paul – Screenwriter (Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets)

By yalepodcasts | January 17, 2019

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One of the biggest names in animated movies, Cinco Paul has co-written the screenplays for Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2 and 3, Horton Hears A Who, Hop, The Lorax, and The Secret Life of Pets, among many others. Cinco and his writing partner, Ken Daurio, are giants in the field, who have now turned their eye on TV, while continuing to write blockbuster films. Join Aaron and Cinco for an in-depth convo about how to write with a partner, how to pitch comedy vs. drama, and where those damn minions come from.